took long sentences to say, and said less eloquently. After long thinking over this, she exclaimed, 'You speak as the trees speak, and like the rock yonder, and the flowers, without saying anything!' This delighted Alessandro's very heart. 'And you, Majella,' he exclaimed; 'when you say that, you speak in the language of our people; you are as we are.' And Ramona, in her turn, was made happy by his words,—happier than she would have been made by any other praise or fondness. Alessandro found himself regaining all his strength as if by a miracle. The gaunt look had left his face. Almost it seemed that its contour was already fuller. There is a beautiful old Gaelic legend of a Fairy who wooed a Prince, came again and again to him, and, herself invisible to all but the Prince, hovered in the air, sang loving songs to draw him away from the crowd of his indignant nobles, who heard her voice and summoned magicians to rout her by all spells and enchantments at their command. Finally they succeeded in silencing her and driving her off; but as she vanished from the Prince's sight she threw him an apple,—a magic golden apple. Once having tasted of this, he refused all other food. Day after day, night after night, he ate only this golden apple; and yet, morning after morning, evening after evening, there lay the golden fruit, still whole and shining, as if he had not fed upon it; and when the Fairy came the next time, the Prince leaped into her magic boat, sailed away with her, and never was seen in his kingdom again. It was only an allegory, this legend,—a beautiful allegory, and true,—of love and lovers. The food on which Alessandro was, hour by hour, now growing strong, was as magic and invisible as Prince Connla's apple, and just as strength- giving. 'My Alessandro, how is it you look so well, so soon?' said Ramona, studying his countenance with loving care. 'I thought that night you would die. Now you look nearly strong as ever; your eyes shine, and your hand is not hot! It is the blessed air; it has cured you, as it cured Felipe of the fever.' 'If the air could keep me well, I had not been ill, Majella,' replied Alessandro. 'I had been under no roof except the tule-shed, till I saw you. It is not the air;' and he looked at her with a gaze that said the rest. At twilight of the third day, when Ramona saw Alessandro leading up Baba, saddled ready for the journey, the tears filled her eyes. At noon Alessandro had said to her: 'To-night, Majella, we must go. There is not grass enough for another day. We must go while the horses are strong. I dare not lead them any farther down the canon to graze, for there is a ranch only a few miles lower. To-day I found one of the man's cows feeding near Baba.' Ramona made no remonstrance. The necessity was too evident; but the look on her face gave Alessandro a new pang. He, too, felt as if exiled afresh in leaving the spot. And now, as he led the horses slowly up, and saw Ramona sitting in a dejected attitude beside the nets in which were again carefully packed their small stores, his heart ached anew. Again the sense of his homeless and destitute condition settled like an unbearable burden on his soul. Whither and to what was he leading his Majella? But once in the saddle, Ramona recovered cheerfulness. Baba was in such gay heart, she could not be wholly sad. The horse seemed fairly rollicking with satisfaction at being once more on the move. Capitan, too, was gay. He had found the canon dull, spite of its refreshing shade and cool water. He longed for sheep. He did not understand this inactivity. The puzzled look on his face had made Ramona laugh more than once, as he would come and stand before her, wagging his tail and fixing his eyes intently on her face, as if he said in so many words, 'What in the world are you about in this canon, and do not you ever intend to return home? Or if you will stay here, why not keep sheep? Do you not see that I have nothing to do?' 'We must ride all night, Majella,' said Alessandro, 'and lose no time. It is a long way to the place where we shall stay to-morrow.' 'Is it a canon?' asked Ramona, hopefully. 'No,' he replied, 'not a canon; but there are beautiful oak-trees. It is where we get our acorns for the winter. It is on the top of a high hill.' 'Will it be safe there?' she asked. 'I think so,' he replied; 'though not so safe as here. There is no such place as this in all the country.' 'And then where shall we go next?' she asked. 'That is very near Temecula,' he said. 'We must go into Temecula, dear Majella. I must go to Mr. Hartsel's. He is friendly. He will give me money for my father's violin. If it were not for that, I would never go near the place again.' 'I would like to see it, Alessandro,' she said gently. 'Oh, no, no, Majella!' he cried; 'you would not. It is terrible; the houses all unroofed,—all but my father's and Jose's. They were shingled roofs; they will be just the same; all the rest are only walls. Antonio's mother threw hers down; I don't know how the old woman ever had the strength; they said she was like a fury. She said nobody should ever live in those walls again; and she took a pole, and made a great hole in one side, and then she ran Antonio's wagon against it with all her might, till it fell in. No, Majella. It will be dreadful.' 'Wouldn't you like to go into the graveyard again, Alessandro?' she said timidly. 'The saints forbid!' he said solemnly. 'I think it would make me a murderer to stand in that graveyard! If I had not you, my Majel, I should kill some white man when I came out. Oh, do not speak of it!' he added, after a moment's silence; 'it takes the strength all out of my blood again, Majella. It feels as if I should die!' And the word 'Temecula' was not mentioned between them again until dusk the next day, when, as they were riding slowly along between low, wooded hills, they suddenly came to an opening, a green, marshy place, with a little thread of trickling water, at which their horses stopped, and drank thirstily; and Ramona, looking ahead, saw lights twinkling in the distance. 'Lights, Alessandro, lights!' she exclaimed, pointing to them. 'Yes, Majella,' he replied, 'it is Temecula,' and springing off his pony he came to her side, and putting both his hands on hers, said: 'I have been thinking, for a long way back, Carita, what is to be done here. I do not know. What does Majella think will be wise? If men have been sent out to pursue us, they may be at Hartsel's. His store is the place where everybody stops, everybody goes. I dare not have you go there, Majella; yet I must go. The only way I can get any money is from Mr. Hartsel.' 'I must wait somewhere while you go!' said Ramona, her heart beating as she gazed ahead into the blackness of the great plain. It looked vast as the sea. 'That is the only safe thing, Alessandro.' 'I think so too,' he said; 'but, oh, I am afraid for you; and will not you be afraid?' 'Yes,' she replied, 'I am afraid. But it is not so dangerous as the other.' 'If anything were to happen to me, and I could not come back to you, Majella, if you give Baba his reins he will take you safe home,—he and Capitan.' Ramona shrieked aloud. She had not thought of this possibility. Alessandro had thought of everything. 'What could happen?' she cried. 'I mean if the men were there, and if they took me for stealing the horse,' he said. 'But you would not have the horse with you,' she said. 'How could they take you?' 'That mightn't make any difference,' replied
